​Bookshelf

The Apothecary's Daughter

The arrival of a mysterious stranger from South Carolina, the disappearance of a family keepsake, and an old tale about a hidden hoard of medieval silver and jewels . . . Keziah Sephton is kept busy caring for three generations of her family, as well as running their apothecary shop. Hard-working George Cunliffe has long loved Keziah, but when gallant Benedict Clay arrives at the apothecary claiming to be blood-kin - and is welcomed into the heart of the Sephton family - George is immediately suspicious of the soft-spoken Southern gentleman's motives.After her grandmother's precious Book of Hours disappears, Keziah is tormented by treacherous doubts and swiftly enmeshed in a shocking spiral of deception, betrayal, ruthless ambition - and cold-blooded murder.

The arrival of a mysterious stranger from South Carolina, the disappearance of a family keepsake, and an old tale about a hidden hoard of medieval silver and jewels . . . Keziah Sephton is kept busy caring for three generations of her family, as well as running their apothecary shop. Hard-working George Cunliffe has long loved Keziah, but when gallant Benedict Clay arrives at the apothecary claiming to be blood-kin - and is welcomed into the heart of the Sephton family - George is immediately suspicious of the soft-spoken Southern gentleman's motives.After her grandmother's precious Book of Hours disappears, Keziah is tormented by treacherous doubts and swiftly enmeshed in a shocking spiral of deception, betrayal, ruthless ambition - and cold-blooded murder.

In Destiny's Wake

Accused of stealing a necklace of pearls, gifted needlewoman Maud Pemberton flees Yorkshire to escape imprisonment.Henry Broome, her sweetheart, helps her begin a new life alone on the Lancashire coast. There, she encounters enigmatic innkeeper, Lawrence Kearsley, who conceals a family secret. When Henry arrives unexpectedly, Maud finds that he, too, is harbouring a dangerous secret.Caught within a spiral of lies and intrigue, Maud risks everything to save the man she loves from the dreadful consequences of long-buried deception.

The Family at Clockmakers Cottage

With her widowed father at sea, Amy Macfarlene looks after the family at Clockmakers Cottage while working as maid and seamstress at Whiteladies Grange, home of the wealthy and powerful Paslews.Amy believes elder sister Fanny is making a dreadful mistake marrying newcomer Theodore Buxton, especially when she overhears Theodore and his brother Nicholas arguing bitterly about a mysterious and dangerous money-making scheme. When Amy suspects Theodore has involved her own brother, Rory, in these criminal dealings, she immediately turns to childhood sweetheart, Dan Ainsworth. Dan comforts and helps - but as her friendship with the handsome Gilbert Paslew blossoms, so do Amy's uncertainties about her future, and indeed for the well-being of the whole Macfarlene family . . .

As the Four Winds Blow

Isobel Blundell isn't looking forward to her special birthday.Her archaeologist husband, Douglas, is in South America, and she and their three children are missing him sorely. On her birthdday, Isobel's mother, Ailsa, and her sisters Kirsty and Dorrie, giver her Douglas's gift - an airline ticket!Overjoyed, Isobel sets off for a holiday with him at the dig. But heartache, danger, conflict and tragedy lie ahead for the whole family - Those at home, as well as Isobel and Douglas in South America.

The Fiddler's Waltz

In post-war Liverpool, Ellen Butterworth's ambitious sweetheart Brian leaves the Navy and comes ashore so they can begin a future together. An urgent telegram from her younger sister Jeanette interrupts their wedding plans, and Ellen must return to the Yorkshire wool town where she grew up. Unexpectedly, Brian follows her - he wants them to be married there and then in Yorkshire! But from the moment Jeanette appears in the room, Brian isn't able to take her eyes off her . . .

The Family by the Sh​ore

An Air-mail letter and wallet of photographs from Hong Kong bring unexpected - and shocking - news for Laura Robbins and her younger brother and sister at Spryglass, the tall old family house facing the seashore on the wild Lancashire coast. Their seafaring father's startling revelation from overseas changes everything forever.As well as great happiness, the months ahead hold heartache, conflict and tragedy for three generations of the family by the shore - not least for Laura, loved by two men but unsure where her heart, and her future, lay.

The Tide's Turn

Charlotte Vale, WIll Jervis and Andrew Holcomb were childhood friends, but when Andrew left Whitby for America, Charlotte did not know he was forced to flee following the death of a young woman in the town.Upon his return some years later, she is overjoyed and assumes Andrew will take over his family's shipping firm - but he appears far more interested in pleasure, leaving the running of the firm to his older sister, Hester, assisted by WIll Jervis.When Andrew suddenly marries, and expects Charlotte to become his wife's companion, she is forced to question whether she really knew Andrew at all.

The Legacy of Blackthorn

During a stormy winter's night, Meirian Penlan travels by stagecoach to take up a mysterious post at Blackthorn Manor. Wild and remote, Blackthorn lies amongst the great meres of Lancashire, surrounded by long-held superstitions, tales of witchcraft and uncanny occurrences.Once there, Meirian is drawn into a web of scandal, deception, blackmail and tragedy. Discovering old love letters and a terrible secret, she risks everything to set right a dreadful wrong - and unravel the disappearance of Blackthorn's medieval jewels . . .

The Faithless Heart

Orphan Catriona Dunbar reluctantly leaves her grandmother's Scottish village home to visit her father's cousins, the Espleys, at their Lancashire estate, Pelham.When sad news comes of her grandmother's death, Samuel Espley insists he is now Catriona's guardian and forbids her to leave Pelham. She has befriended the mysterious hired hand, Morgan Chappel, but accused of smuggling and wrecking, Morgan is imprisoned at Liverpool gaol. Catriona must discover the truth about the shipwreck that killed her parents, if she is ever to prove Morgan's innocence - and avoid a forced marriage to her cousin, Sir Julian Espley.

The Warmsleys of Pedlars Down

Since girlhood, Rachel Warmsley has devoted her life to caring for her widowed father and younger brothers, keeping house for them at Pedlars Down, the brown and white timber-framed manor house that has been home to the Warmsleys for generations. When handsome cotton merchant Hugh Armstrong comes courting, Rachel falls in love for the first time. But on the night of the summer ball at his elegant riverside mansion, her happiness is cruelly shattered when she witnesses a shocking revelation . . .